Is there a way to 'fix' the Isekai Genre?

[Diana Silver]

Skip.knox your comtemplative literary view sounds very wise but I am genuinely wondering if you have every tried a couple of stories from this genre. I mean this question without shade: have you?

 

[Finchbearer]

Call it stereotypes more than tropes. Truck-kun hitting someone to speed them on their way to the other world, a goddess that grants them a cheat skill, a psedo-medieval setting where the MC winds up with plenty of attractive females around him, etc...

So it’s portal fantasies to ‘better places’ ? There was me thinking of Spirited Away…

 

[TheKillerBs]

I guess your mileage may vary, but it's usually not a very good place and there's a demon lord or some other problem in that realm threatening to destroy the kingdom/world/whathaveyou

 

[skip.knox]

>I am genuinely wondering if you have every tried a couple of stories from this genre

Nope. I have a pretty long list of Must Reads, far more books than I have years, and I'm getting awfully choosy. I was only wondering how the OP (you, now that I look back) would identify or list the checklist. I realize it's not an actual checklist, but you sounded pretty clear that there were absolute requirements for the genre. I just wondered what they were. Most genres and even sub-genres are pretty fuzzy in their definitions, which is one reason why we get lively arguments, er, discussions about them.

So far, I haven't heard any suggestions about fixes. I'd be genuinely interested in hearing those, as well.